Two-Time World Champion Momota Announces Retirement from International Badminton

Two-time world champion Kento Momota announced today that he will be retiring from professional badminton at the age of 29, ending a short but successful career marred during the last four years by injuries suffered in a major car crash. Japan’s Momota was known as the king of badminton in 2019 and reigned over the courts winning 11 titles and losing only 6 of the 73 matches he played throughout that year. For him coming first at the Kuala Lumpur airport- Malaysia Masters, however, hours later, the car taking him to the airport crashed. Unfortunately, the driver was killed, and Momota suffered a fractured eye socket that required surgery to mend it.

• “I have come to this point because I have reached a breaking point in which I can no longer endure to fight to be the number one in the world.” He is now 52 in the world.
• "I can't deny that as I was lying in the hospital bed after the accident I've heard myself asking 'Why me?'" – her mother said in Tokyo a few minutes ago.
• "After that traffic accident I had a lot of difficult moments, Momota said.
• "Unable to imitate my performance at previous games through trial and error, I saw a gap between my mind and body."

Now ranked 52 and also missing a chance for the Paris Olympics, Momota will quit the national Japan team and will play the Thomas and Uber Cup in China for the last time in this month.

His Struggle:

During his 45-minute press appearance, Momota, who was beaming broadly the entire time but sometimes paused to find the proper words, stated he had no regrets about retiring from professional badminton.
"There was a lot of hardship and it wore me down, but I didn't want to blame the tough times on the accident," he stated.
"I wanted to bounce back from it and that attitude along with the support of people around me at least allowed me to get a foothold."

He stated that "I really felt how difficult it was to do the things you do normally, so don't think about the result, just give it your all so that you have no regrets,".